Forsaken Hammers
The Forsaken Hammers are a group of renegade Space Marines from the Hammer Guard and Solar Wardens Chapters, as well as members of various legions that have been absorbed into their ranks. Originally just a company of Hammer Guard were lost in the warp during their penitent crusade, the warriors realized they were forsaken by their brothers and would quickly turn to service of the Archenemy to survive and get revenge on those who abandoned them. Now they have grown, and they strike out at the Imperium and their former brothers, each member fighting for their own individual goals. History After the Hammer Guard’s 2nd Company was lost in the warp during the Chapter’s penitent crusade, they wandered for years in search of their lost brothers. After no sign of them could be found, the 2nd Company realized they had been forsaken by their kin, and the sting of this betrayal pushed their weakened minds and wills over the edge. Now without a true reason to fight they wandered aimlessly, until they were approached by a small warband of cultists led by a Dark Apostle. Despite their years of psycho-conditioning training them to kill these servants of Chaos at the first sign, the 2nd Company agreed to meet. This Dark Apostle spoke to them with a fiery zeal and as if he were one of their own, filling their hearts and minds once more with purpose. He spoke to them of fellow Astartes and mortals who experienced their pain, who still now wandered the Maelstrom without a goal. In his presence they renounced their service to the Corpse Emperor, and pledged themselves to the service of Chaos, and to those who had been Forsaken by an uncaring and unworthy Imperium. Separating from the Dark Apostle to go off on their own, the fledgling warband began to seek out and draw in mortal warbands who had been abandoned and turned on by the Imperium. Once they had grown, they sought out their fellow Heretic Astartes, particularly smaller warbands originating from the Black Legion or the Night Lords. It was then that the first divides within the warband began to form. As they recruited more and more warbands from these two legions, the tactics that the warband employed began to clash. Most of the renegade Hammer Guard and certain members of the Black Legion became known as the Traditionalists for their preference of straightforward approaches to warfare, using tactics such as siege warfare or ranged assaults. The others became known as the Adaptors for their newer tactics, adopting many methods used by the Night Lords and Raptor warbands. These two sides began to clash, causing the warband to separate into loosely-united raider parties. To retain command over the warband as a whole, a makeshift counsel was established from the champions of each party, who were ultimately led by the Chaos Lord Kalgor the Devourer, his charisma and iron will preventing any successful attempt on his life. Over the course of a Millennia they grew under the command of Kalgor, gathering over 1750 Heretic Astartes and thousands of cultists under the banner of the Forsaken Hammers. Another divide was growing however, as the newer recruits pledged their devotion to the Gods and acted in Their service, while the veterans of the Forsaken did not care for the Dark Gods and sought only to use their gifts for the Forsaken's goals. Then, out of the blue, they encountered Astartes of similar genes, loyalists that had grown tired of their service to the Corpse Emperor and seeking out a way to serve their new secret masters, the "Greater Stars." Eager to meet their kin, the Hammer Guard veterans quickly brought these loyalists under the command of Legate Decarde Karrova into their fold, proving that the cause of the Forsaken was a truer purpose than anything the Imperium offered. The Corruption Exposed The turncoats did not initially announce their betrayal, instead worming their corruption through the chapter, corrupting the 5th Company soon after Legate Steelblade fell. As the chapter convened over Gabarlos, the destroyed homeworld of the Hammer Guard, the turncoats saw their opportunity. They fired upon the Chapter's Flagship, the Hammer of Gabarlos, before dropping to the surface of the planet where they knew the loyalists wouldn't dare fire upon them from orbit. Thus, at first the lone companies fought against the entirety of their brethren, winning initially but having the tides quickly turn on them. At the height of the battle a vanguard force of the Forsaken entered the system, bringing the newly-dubbed Serpent Tribe of the Solar Wardens in tow. These reinforcements rescued their new kin as they dealt a devastating blow to the Hammer Guard in the void. As they retreated from the Gabarlos system, the vanguard force led the Hammer Guard through several systems that had been turned into traps by other raiding parties of the Forsaken, slowing them down before joining the vanguard on their return to the Maelstrom. There, as they halted to consolidate their forces, Kalgor welcomed these brothers fully into the ranks. This brought controversy with it, however, as both the fading traditionalists and growing adaptors swelled in numbers, and Decarde Karrova was chosen as an exalted champion over even some of the eldest members of the Forsaken. The Slaughter of Sub-Sector Solaritus When the 13th Black Crusade was reaching it's climax, the Forsaken began to wage their own war, part of a larger plan that Kalgor had spent 16 years perfecting. They targeted specific worlds for resources and manpower, adding even more cultists to their army and whatever ships they could capture to their fleet. Right as their conquests began to gain attention from the Imperium at large, the Cicatrix Maledictum opened, and the Forsaken were able to enact their second phase. Carving a bloody trail through the Imperium Nihilus, the Forsaken raided worlds in a straight line towards Sub-Sector Solaritus. With an armada and around a million cultists, the Forsaken were at the height of the power as they laid siege to the worlds defended by the Hammer Guard and Novus Krakens, making a pact with the Leviathans Eclipse to aid each other in the destruction of their loyalist brothers. For 36 years the Forsaken Hammers laid siege to their brothers, Kalgor personally reforming the raider parties to effectively target each system that the Hammer Guard defended. They inflicted heavy casualties on those who were once their brother, but even the millions of cultists could not truly break the Sub-Sector. To make matters worse, Lord Kalgor was slain in combat with Dominum Custodem Stormfury, causing the warband to fall into disarray as each raiding party squabbled over their next courses of action, leading to cases of infighting. Decarde Karrova temporarily fixed this disarray, personally meeting with the other Exalted Champions and offering them a piece of Kalgor's precious wargear, but taking the helmet and blade for himself. Drawing from the other raiding parties, Karrova plotted his next strike, targeting the one place which would break the Hammer Guard's morale in ways that death would not. With a massive army of cultists and Heretic Astartes, Karrova descended upon the world of Gabarlos and met the 3rd and 7th Companies of the Hammer Guard in battle. Fighting a long and drawn-out siege against the loyalists, Decarde used cultists and summoned Daemons to grind down their fortifications before launching strikes with Heretic Astartes that forced the Hammer Guard back, often leaving many dead on both sides. When the loyalists were forced back to the mouth of the ruins that were once their Fortress Monastery, Karrova unleashed the Daemon Kale'malum, seeking to use his hatred for the Hammer Guard to end the fight and lay claim to the ground the Hammer Guard saw as holy. While dealing a devastating blow, Kale'malum fell to the combined efforts of the Hammer Guard and Novus Krakens, and with the realization that the loyalists would not break and rumors of a great Crusade approaching, the Forsaken fled the Sub-Sector. Recovery and Reformation Fleeing from the Siege, the Forsaken nearly fractured. Many sought to blame someone for their failure, and many of the divides that Kalgor had bridged were beginning to expand again. Traditionalists blamed Adaptors for their lack of knowledge on how to properly break a siege, just as Adaptors blamed Traditionalists for their reluctance to close the distance and overwhelm their enemy in combat. The biggest divide was between the devout and the manipulating, pinning the blame on each other for their beliefs. Now the acting Lord of the Forsaken, Decarde Karrova formed a new plan. The Forsaken needed a place to settle in order to not burn as much fuel needlessly, and a way to prevent a civil war. He gathered up the Exalted Champions of the raiding parties, and split them into two groups. The first one returned to the maelstrom while the other looked through the worlds bordering it, both of them finding a new world for the Forsaken to settle upon. The first group, consisting of mainly Adaptors and containing only a small amount of devout Forsaken, found the Daemon World of Diabulosa to call home. The secound, making up a majority of both the Traditionalists and the devout, settled on the world of Gallileaus. The Wrath of the Hammers On the corrupted world of Gallileus, the Forsaken Hammers met another warband from the Maelstrom, one wreathed in hate and the essence of Chaos. Calling themselves the Dusk Born, this warband knew who the Forsaken Hammers were, and explained that they were not just another follower of the Ruinous Powers, but were the Forsaken hammers own progenitors, and took pride in those of their gene-line who had seen the truth of Chaos. They wished to join the Forsaken, informing them that they knew the Hammer Guard would soon come, and the Forsaken agreed. As they fortified the planet, turning every city into a deathtrap and every street becoming it's own form of Hell, they were discovered by a force coming from the Brazen Dragons. Despite fighting them off, the Dragons escaped, and the Forsaken knew the Dusk Born had been correct. A month later the full force of the Hammer Guard arrived, and launched their troops to destroy the Forsaken once and for all. What they found when they landed was the very definition of nightmare, the planet turned into a hellhole filled with the vile and repulsive signs of Chaos, streets covered in eye-watering signs and squares turned into sacrificial pits, the taint of Chaos evident everywhere. In this hell the Hammer Guard engaged their traitor kin, unable to break the defenses of their main compound. The Forsaken, along with the Dusk Born, cut down the Hammer Guard numbers in front of them, laughing at the slaughter. Then, with elements of the 3rd, 7th, 1st, and 2nd Companies, Dominum Custodem Stormfury himself led a strike against the compound, striking the single spot where the lines of defenders thinned. Breaking through, Hammer Guard flooded into the base while slamming against the outer walls, pinning the Forsaken Hammers between two tides of orange and black. Within the the heart of the corrupted and maddening Forsaken's Compound, Dominum Custodem Stormfury and his Legates engaged Lord Karrova in fierce combat. This climactic battle would see to the beginning of the end of the fight, as Stormfury, mortally wounded and dying, threw the head of his Thunder Hammer, which had been broken off by Karrova's blade, into the wounded Karrova to stun him, and then used the last of his energy to drive the broken end of his handle into Karrova's chest. With their leader dead and many of them dying, the Forsaken Hammers and their Dusk Born allies began to flee the battle. Many of them died during the retreat, with only around a quarter of a hundred of the Forsaken Hammers returning to Diabulosa with their cultist mobs. Progenitor and Successor Reunited The Forsaken, now led by only the council of Forsaken Champions, met with their progenitors the Dusk Born on Diabulosa. Both devoted to the goal of wreaking havoc on the Imperium, the two warbands sought to rectify the dangerously losses taken on Gallileaus. The CHampions of the Forsaken and Lord Estoden soon agreed to combine their forces, to ensure neither warband would go completely extinct. Not all of the Dusk Born agreed with this plan, however. Seeing the Forsaken as weaklings and those who wished to take them in as fools, Exalted Champion Kiraxus Warpscourge gathered nearly a third of the Dusk Born and launched an attack on the palace of the Forsaken Council, seeking to destroy the last of the Forsaken and take the title of Lord of the Dusk Born as his own. Seeing this as treachery, Lord Estoden the Unrelenting gathered those still loyal and met the traitors in battle. During the fight Estoden was killed, and the council took command of both the Dusk Born allied to them and the Forsaken as a whole. Repelling the forces of Warpscourge, the council surrounded the surviving Dusk Born and gave them an ultimatum: Join or die. Many joined but some refused, and the Exalted Champion Arabhor the Young personally slaughtered them all. Under new Leadership With these new Dusk Born forced into the ranks and no apparent threat, the raiding parties returned to their routine arguing and infighting, each seeking their own goals but not accepting the ideas of any other champion. After three weeks, the youngest of them, Arabhor the Young, arrived at the council wearing the armor of the fallen Lord Kalgor and with a retinue of his Chosen, one from each separate legion and renegade chapter. He claimed that the council was no longer necessary and had long been a blight on the Forsaken's progress. He then drew his weapon and, in unison with his Chosen, cut down the other Exalted Champions. First baptizing himself in their blood, Arabhor claimed the title of Lord of the Forsaken, becoming known as Arabhor the Reborn. He quickly imposed his will on the rest of the Forsaken, electing his Chosen as the replacements for the fallen Exalted Champions. Even with the title of "the Young," Arabhor was a veteran of the Forsaken Hammers, having been in their service for most of their existence. He held the same hatred for the Hammer Guard as both Decarde Karrova and Kalgor the Devourer, and yet having originated as a member of the Black Legion, Arabhor understood the plight of the Night Lord and Black Legion Forsaken. He quickly got to work on a plan to appease both sides, and soon the vile ships of the Forsaken were once again spreading their hate across the Materium. Striking at certain planets, the raiding parties not only deal hard blows against the Dark Imperium but draw the attention of the Hammer Guard, leading them into ambushes and traps devised specifically to allow the Forsaken another chance to get revenge for the pain inflicted upon them. Notable Campaigns *'The Second Battle of Gabarlos (983.M41)' - As their brothers in secret revealed themselves, the Forsaken Hammers were summoned by their brothers to aide them in the fight against the Hammer Guard, who had refused to be corrupted, saved by 'That Damned Cybus'. They fought with unbridled fury at the sight of their former Chapter, their hatred beyond comprehension. Eventually the Forsaken Hammers were forced to retreat back to the Warp, but not before making sure they were forgotten no more. *'War for Sub-Sector Solaritus (999.M41 -- 036.M42) - '''As the Dark Imperium was cut off from the light of the Emperor by the Great Rift, the Forsaken raided multiple worlds around the Sub-Sector that the Hammer Guard called home. With a massive horde of cultists, the Forsaken Hammers launched a 36-year-long siege upon the Sub-Sector, which cost the lives of many Hammer Guard, but, in the end, left the Forsaken weak and undermanned, losing nearly half their warband, along with their Chaos Lord. *'War for Gallileus (097.M42) -''' After their position was revealed by the Brazen Dragons, the Forsaken and their allies the Dusk Born defended their hold on the world of Gallileus, where they had regrouped to recruit before going back to Diabulosa, from their kin in the Hammer Guard. Despite slaughtering a large swathe of their loyalist brothers, the Forsaken Hammers were defeated and massacred, with Lord Karrova falling to Dominum Custodem Stormfury, taking his life in turn. Only around a hundred Forsaken returned to Diabulosa, each one filled with hate and devoted to destroying their brothers. Notable Forsaken Hammers * 'Chaos Lord Kalgor the Devourer - '''Kalgor was originally the Starpriest of the former 2nd Company that was lost in the Warp, and took command soon after they were separated, after the former Legate died due to mysterious causes. He was killed by the late Dominum Custodem Stormfury as they fought on the bridge of the ''Shield of Hate. * 'Chaos Sorcerer Anukos Redscream -' Anukos Redscream, as he was called, was the former Sunwraith of the lost company. He found a calling in the worship of Slaanesh, He had a love for torture and pain, using his powers to torture others for days on end until their hearts couldn't take it anymore. He was sacrificed by Decarde Karrova, using his allegiance to Slaanesh as a way to earn the favor of Khorne, summoning the vile Bloodthirster Kale'malum. * 'Chaos Lord Karrova - '''Formerly the legate of the Hammer Guard 2nd company, Decarde Karrova was critically injured in the second battle of Gabarlos, when his arm was blown apart by Azrael Cybus's Thunder Hammer. Since then, he had fallen to the rank of Aspiring Champion, something he resented, while his arm had been replaced with a bionic arm. On the field of battle he wielded a warp-tainted power axe and combat knife, unleashing his hatred for Azrael and his former brothers upon the enemy. He rose to the rank of Chaos Lord following the death of Kalgor the Devourer, but was slain on Gallileus by Dominum Custodem, the two taking each other's life. * '''Chaos Lord Arabhor the Reborn -' Following the death of Lord Karrova, the warband fell into anarchy, each surviving leader arguing over who should become the Lord of the Forsaken. The dispute was ended when the Exalted Champion known as Arabhor the Young slaughtered the other leaders and baptized himself in their blood, rising out of the pool and claiming the title of Chaos Lord for himself, along with the new name of Arabhor the Reborn. Cult and Culture The Forsaken Hammers are separated into several different groups, separating their culture, drastically in some ways. What binds these all together is the notion of revenge. Every Forsaken seeks revenge, and they are all willing to aid each other in getting their revenge against whatever party has wronged them. Beyond that, the Forsaken have begun to split further for their views on the Dark Gods. While every member seeks the power offered by Daemonhood, the older veterans of the Forsaken Hammers simply use the Dark Gods for their power and will do their bidding only to gain power, while the newer veterans are devoted fully to the service of the Ruinous Powers, sacrificing and conducting rituals to earn their favor. These two parties clash often, and without Arabhor's forceful grip on the warband, it would likely descend into civil war. Favoured Tactics The Forsaken Hammers are made up of many different elements from multiple legions, and there are two main tactics employed by the Forsaken's Raid Parties. The first is the traditional ranged and siege warfare, a dying practice in the Forsaken Hammers which are employed by the last few Traditionalist raid parties. The other tactics, preferred by the numerous and growing Adaptor elements, are the use of terror, close range warfare, and rapid strikes to cut deep into the enemy quickly and effectively. The tactics used by the Adaptors are becoming more and more popular and, combined with the use of daemonic engines and rituals of the more devout elements, will quickly overwhelm their foe and lock them into a gory fight for survival against the bloodthirsty Heretic Astartes of the Forsaken Hammers. Recruitment The recruitment of the Forsaken Hammers is often left to the raid parties, for each group wishes to use their own gene-seed to make the future of the Forsaken in order to gain an advantage over the others. They will often take their recruits from worlds and cults within the Maelstrom, trading supplies for them or, as is often the case, taking them by force. The other source of recruits are those worlds dotting both the Maelstrom and the Great Rift, coming down from the skies and slaughtering the populace before taking any eligible recruits and whatever slaves and supplies they can. These recruits are often the ones more likely to survive the horrifying implantation process carried out by the few apothecaries left in the warband, as their bodies are not nearly as mutated or corrupted by the warp. Mutations While mutations are often gifted to the more devoted of the Forsaken Hammers, whose mutations are often random and differ from most of their brothers, every Forsaken Hammer shares the same few mutations. They are all cursed with a daemonic voice, their voices deepened beyond what would naturally be possible and speaking as if they were possessed, sounding as if two people are speaking from the same mouth. Their eyes are cursed as well, blinking in and out of what they refer to as "Neverborn Sight" at random. This Neverborn Sight is seeing the souls and warp signatures of the beings around them, seeing souls as the forms that are most alinged with their nature. For the Forsaken, these souls often manifest as hideous beasts or, in the case of some, as a serpent. Organization The Forsaken Hammers are organized into multiple groups of Heretic Astartes and cultist mobs, known as raid parties. Led by an Exalted Champion or Sorcerer that acts as an extension of the Forsaken Lord's will, these raid parties are sent out to gather resources and strike at the Imperium, and are gifted with a small fleet of warships to aid them and carry them to their destination. While the structure and size of these raid parties varies, the largest is always the personal raid party of the Chaos Lord, whose fleet possess the strongest warships and the most loyal and gifted of the Forsaken. There are 7 raid parties, each given a name to reflect their deeds. *'The Lord's Chosen -' The Personal raid party of the Chaos Lord Arabhor the Reborn, the raid party known as the Lord's Chosen possesses a high number of terminators, Chosen, and helbrutes, as well as a large mob of cultists and a large group of gifted heretic Astartes and Raptors *'The Skytearers -' The Raid Party known as the Sky Tearers is led by the Exalted Champion known as Ashrock Daemonsblade, who has earned himself and his party the nickname of Skytearer for their preference towards Raptor assaults and aerial combat, ripping holes in the sky as Raptors, Heldrakes, and Drop Pods rain death upon their victims. *'The Hammers of Slaughter -' Led by the Khornate Exalted Champion known only as Slaughter, the Hammers of Slaughter have earned a reputation for raiding planets for little more than to slaughter whatever is upon it, drawing cultist mobs along behind them to collect whatever slaves or resources remain. *'The Eldritch Forsaken -' As a psyker-heavy raid party, Sorcerer Faldus Darkspear prefers to engage his foes with an army of daemons alongside him, his lieutenants unleashing powerful spells as his cultist mobs and few Heretic Astartes close in for the kill. Homeworld The Forsaken Hammers have come to claim the daemon world of Diaboluso as their home, walking among the vile Daemons of the warp as if they were daemons themselves. Lying within the Maelstrom, the Daemon World's very soil is tainted by Chaos, and the longer the Forsaken Hammers stand on the corrupted earth, the more they are mutated and "gifted" by their dark gods. Relations Enemies Hammer Guard The Hammer GUard are the most hated foe of the Forsaken Hammers, as they were the kin who abandoned them, leaving them to the mercy of the warp. Every chance they get, the hammer guard elements within the warband would readily strike out at the Hammer Guard in order to slaughter their kin, while the other elements would gladly steal resources and supplies from loyalist forces. Every action the Forsaken takes has seemed to lead them back to the Hammer Guard, and both sides know it will not end until the other side is completely destroyed. Dusk Born While they are kin themselves, the only feelings the Forsaken Hammers have for the Dusk Born is hate. The losses inflicted by Kiraxus Warpscourge have left more than physical scars, for they wounded the Forsaken's pride. Every member of the Forsaken, no matter their origin, has vowed to claim the heads of the Dusk Born to regain their honor and repair their reputation. Allies Leviathans Eclipse The allies the Forsaken Hammers have are few and far between, and even then they are those that they simply haven't gotten into conflict with. The most notable of these so-called allies is the Leviathans Eclipse, who are the traitorous kin of the Novus Krakens. This alliance is a corrupted mirror of the one shared by both sides' loyalist kin, as each side aids each other in the destruction of their kin. Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Chaos Undivided Category:Chaos Warbands Category:TireKhorne Category:Chaos